Monday, January 25, 2010

Measuring the Moral Reasoning of Athletes

The University of Idaho's Center for ETHICS (Ethical Theory and Honor in Competition and Sport) is the home for a great deal of both theoretical and action research about moral and ethical reasoning and development in sport. The center's Hahm-Beller Values Choice Inventory (HBVCI) measures moral reasoning in athletes and they have assessed over 80,000 individuals (ranging from high school students through adults) using this instrument and the findings are compelling (more on the findings later).

But one of the items on this survey stood out to me because of its uncanny similarity to the now-famous "hand ball" incident that occurred in the World Cup qualifier game between France and Ireland late last year. Thierry's hand ball led directly to a France score which tied the game and effectively eliminated Ireland from the World Cup. The item on the HBVCI reads as follows:

"Question 1: Male soccer players are allowed to play the ball with any part of their body except the hands or outstretched arms. A soccer player receives a chest high pass and taps the ball to the ground with his hand. The referee does not see this action and the play continues, Because it is the referee's job to see these actions, the player is not obligated to report his foul."

Survey participants are asked to indicate their level of agreement with the last two sentences by noting whether they "Strongly Agree," "Agree," are "Neutral," "Disagree," or "Strongly Disagree." If I am not mistaken, those who strongly agree are demonstrating a lower level of moral reasoning than those who strongly disagree. I think what makes this a worthy point of discussion is that the focus is squarely on the direct connection between decisions made in an athletic setting and the moral development of the athlete making those decisions. This is not about what is "practical" in the game of sport or what behavior seems to best fit in the context of sport as we know it. It's a question that directly accesses someone's moral decision making in an athletic setting.

Overall, their findings (summarized here) show that males in team sports demonstrate the lowest moral reasoning scores. Athletes in individual sports demonstrate higher levels of moral reasoning than those in team sports. And the longer that women are involved in team sport competition, the more their moral reasoning appears to erode.

OK, there are so many directions to move in here and I'll stop for now. Food for thought and a future posting.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Breaking the Unwritten Rule

I was interested to read the comments of the coach of the Yates High School (Houston, TX) boys basketball team after the media and public response to his team's 170-35 shellacking of another team on January 5, 2010. Greg Wise, the coach of this obviously talented team, responded to criticism by saying:

"The real story isn’t getting out, and that’s what hurts me. If you are interested in breaking records, that’s not the main focus of high school sports. That’s not the stuff I’m teaching my kids. Nobody shows me taking kids home in an impoverished area where there is gang violence, or calling kids before school and telling them to get on the bus. Nobody shows them doing study hall before school. It’s crazy.”

His frustration is not unlike that of many whose stories are reported by the media with an eye toward simplicity, sensation, and what will grab the attention of a CNN Headline News viewer. But I have to ask, how would showing his players in study hall contribute to a well-balanced view of this issue? As far as I can figure, the issue at stake is one of sportsmanship, a commitment to the unspoken, unwritten contract that two high school teams enter into when they play each other. That contract, as I see it, includes the assumption that both teams will play hard, play fairly, and will treat each other with respect. Pressing, running the break, and allowing starters to play when you have a 100-point lead is not respect. Even if you are a regular participant in study hall.

I will allow that there is some gray area when it comes to "running up the score." There are countless stories of teams that were soundly beating another team, let up, and then ended up losing the game. But this doesn't look gray to me. It looks as black and white as a Holstein (and smells just as bad). And why do I think this is one of the more blatant acts of unsportsmanship I've seen lately? In part, because it is disregards one of the most important elements of team competition: that the game simply wouldn't exist without the full participation of two teams. The Yates team relied on the other team to even have a game (and the referees too, of course). They couldn't achieve any of their goals if the other team didn't exist, show up, or play. Unlike, say, pole vaulting, they couldn't score their hoped-for 200 points and have it count for anything if there wasn't an opponent (and I don't know enough about international track and field to know whether or not a pole vaulter actually needs to have opponents for his or her vault count, but let's say for argument, that they don't).

We can rationalize such running up the score, particularly in professional sports, for all sorts of reasons. But this coach's rationale is weak at best. In fact, his argument doesn't even address whether or not what his team was wrong. He deflects the issue by saying "My players and I do all of these other admirable things so you should ignore this particular act." Like many "rules of the game," not running up the score is unwritten. And these unwritten rules are most vulnerable to abuse since they are followed only when teams and coaches demonstrate thought, restraint, and discretion. This is REALLY hard in a competitive arena. How do you tell competitive players not to score or to play soft when all of their training has been geared toward the exact opposite?

No doubt, successful athletes have the "killer instinct." Successful professional athletes almost as a rule, need to have that characteristic. But to cultivate that at the high school level to such a degree that the utter humiliation experienced by the other team isn't even recognized, is a disservice to all involved in high school sports. The chance to blow out another team (and resist the temptation) is a great teaching moment. It is an opportune time to instill in players that competition and at least some level of empathy are not mutually exclusive. And it's a great time to demonstrate the honor of respecting another team's presence and participation in the game.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Motivation or Abuse?

Mike Leach, the Texas Tech football coach, was recently fired amid allegations of abuse toward players (really one player in particular). Leach allegedly told an athletic trainer to have a player, who had recently been diagnosed with a concussion, go stand in a dark room and stand alone for the duration of practice. It's not clear to me exactly what the connection there is but there are indications that the player was not on Leach's good side (which I kind of hope is true because if not, I shudder to think of what he might do to players who pissed him off).

The relationship between coach and player can, at its best, be life changing, transformative, and highly educational. But like any other relationship it can go bad. And the potential for it to slide from one of unequal power into abuse is ever-present. Acts like Leach's illustrate what happens when a coach chooses to use his power and act out in a way that has no resemblance to sound discipline or education. Coaches are generally given more freedom to do what they think necessary to help a player and team become "better." When I was a college coach, I secretly loved the idea that every once in awhile I could say to an underperforming player, "get your head out of your ass!" when my faculty friends would likely be hauled into the Provost's office for saying anything resembling that comment to a student. I'm sure that secretly they too would like to walk over to an inattentive (ok, sleeping) student and suddenly bellow into their ear "GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!" Alas, only a coach (or a drill sergeant) is given the leeway to say such things and still be applauded as an excellent motivator.

In the context of sports, yelling (and sometimes swearing) at young men and women is not always considered abusive. Occasionally, when it gets excessive (or just too quiet in the gym when the expletive flies) it is considered in bad taste. But rarely abusive. But highly successful coaches (and by successful I don't mean wins and losses as much as helping challenge young men and women to become better people) rarely scream and yell all the time and most certainly, they don't lock their players in a dark room to teach them...something.

As a coach, I didn't assign the dirty jobs to the freshmen. I had everybody do the dirty jobs (myself and my assistants included) and do them together. Coaches who always assign the grunt work to the freshman are thinking that they are somehow helping these newbies earn their stripes. But what are they really learning? And will they learn more by carrying the water themselves than if they do it with an upperclassmen? To me, building team is building a whole team. Not segments of a team in the hopes that they will then come together magically on game day. In fact, instead of letting seniors sit back and get waited on by the freshman, I often assigned seniors and captains some of the least desirable jobs (cleaning the van after a long road trip, for instance). To me, that sent the message that with seniority and power, came responsibility to do things for the entire team. Freshmen saw that and instead of feeling pushed around, saw a future obligation and the notion that leadership was not about directing others to do your work. It was about chipping in and helping the whole team.

To come full circle, you have to wonder what Leach thought he was accomplishing. It seems to be nothing short of retribution or punishment without a modicum of education. Of course, I don't know the full context. But to me, this is one of those things that I'll draw a line in the sand. I -- and many of the outstanding coaches I have come across in my career -- would never consider doing something like what Leach did. And I promise that if I ever get a chance to teach in the classroom, I will never tell a student to get his head out of his ass. Unless of course, I'm teaching veterinary medicine and my student really has his head in his ass.